Efforts to quantify factors influencing myofacial pain dysfunction (MFPD) associated with occlusal dysfunction and temporomandibular joint disorders are well under way. Among the most intensively studied are new techniques for noninvasively assessing the existence and extent of clinically meaningful changes in the temporomandibular joint. These include the use of contiguous CT scans to produce a detailed three-dimensional replica of joint constituents and the use of nuclear-magnetic resonance (NMR) to produce images of intracapsular structures. Data derived from CT scans of cadaver specimens show that the maximum error in predicting the measured volume of a human condyle using an existing algorithm is less than 5% irrespective of the projection geometry used to produce the scans. The data show also that the precision of the volume estimate is relatively independent of the parameters used to produce the data. Related, controlled investigations suggest that conventional methods for acquiring and displaying CT data produced from intracapsular tissues can produce artifacts due to "volume-sharing" within anisotropic volume elements which may result in significant errors in the diagnosis of a displaced meniscus. NMR studies have demonstrated significant alterations in tissues produced by post-mortem changes. This complicates the design of controlled experiments for calibrating observed patterns with known pathological conditions. In spite of this obstacle, new surface-coil technology already has produced images of intracapsular components which clearly depict relationships consistent with knowledge derived from direct dissection. Other work centers on the use of photoplastic wafers to measure the distribution of occlusal forces as influenced by the presence of unilateral myofacial pain. Plastic deformations produced by occlusal stresses are analyzed photometrically in a way which facilitates automated analysis by computer. Preliminary data indicate that the use of drugs to mediate pain has little influence on the measured distribution of occlusal forces in MFPD patients.